Seas siblings are state bound

Brother and sister tandem Dan and Jenny Seas will be looking to be crowned as state champions in the 3200 Meter Run as the 2016 state track meet, held in Columbus on June 3-4. Photo by Mark Carpenter.

Peebles runners will compete in state track meet on June 4

By Mark Carpenter –

The beat rolls on for the brother and sister tandem of Dan and Jenny Seas from Peebles High School as they will both be competing in this weekend’s state track meet, both looking to bring home state titles in the 3200 Meter Run. The Seas siblings qualified for state by virtue of a pair of outstanding performances in the regional meet on May 28 at Fairfield Union High School.

Jenny Seas will have to be considered one of the favorites in the 3200 going into the race after her performance int he Division III regionals. Continuing her record-shattering season, Jenny, just a freshman at Peebles, set the Region 11 record in the 3200, winning a regional championship in a time of 11:09.34, nearly 20 seconds better than the second place finisher, Kyleigh Edwards of Fairfield Christian. She has the second best regional time of the 16 girls who will be running the 3200 at state, behind only St. Thomas Aquinas senior Athena Welsh (11:05.02).

Senior Dan Seas will be competing in the Boys 3200 Meter Run at the state meet on Saturday, after placing second in the Division III regional, finishing in a time of 9:39.65, one spot behind Fisher Catholic senior Aaron Wood, who broke the Region 11 record with his time of 9:16.58. Dan has the sixth best time of the 16 runners in the state meet, so he stands a very good chance of appearing on the podium at race’s end.

The Seas family almost made it another trifecta as sophomore sibling Matthew Seas finished just one spot away from qualifying for the state meet. Matthew placed fifth in the 3200 at the Division III regional with a time of 9:56.46, behind fourth place Jacob Thompson from Fairfield Christian, who timed in at 9:47.21.

One other Adams County athlete competed in the Division III regional meet, Manchester’s Brendon Kessler in the Boys 200 Meter Dash. Kessler placed 10th in the preliminary race and did not reach the finals, concluding a fine season for the Greyhound track squad.

The OHSAA State Meet will be held on Friday, June 3 and Saturday, June 4 at Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium on the campus of Ohio State University. The Division II Girls and Boys 3200 Meter races are scheduled for 11:25 a.m. on Saturday morning.

Besides the Peebles duo, a number of other athletes from the Southern Hills Athletic Conference will be competing at the state level. The Eastern Brown relay team of Abby Fultz, Cassidy Staggs, Madison Hopkins, and Jensen Sowers qualified in both the 4 x 100 and 4 x 200 relays, with Fultz also qualifying individually in the Girls Long Jump. The Fairfield quartet of Brandtson Duffie, Trent Swisher, Matthew Mangus, and Noah Richmond will compete in the 4 x 800 relay and finally, Lynchburg’s Bailey Leininger will be part of the Girls Discus competition.